10 Things to Do With Your New Mac

Congratulations, you got a new Mac for Christmas! There’s no such thing as a bad time to get one, but there’s something extra special about finding a treat from Cupertino under the tree--namely, all the time off you have to hunker down with a glass of eggnog and discover your awesome computer. To help make your yuletide season brighter, we’ve put together a list of ten things you can do to start off life with your new Mac on the right foot. We don’t care whether you’ve been naughty or nice--just have fun!

1. Transfer Files from Your Old Computer

If you’re moving to your new Mac from another Mac, it’s easy to bring all your files with you, thanks to Migration Assistant. With it, you can transfer user accounts and their files, applications, network settings, and more from a Time Machine backup or another Mac to the same location on your new machine. Just launch Migration Assistant (located in Applications>Utilities) and connect the backup drive to your new Mac, or connect the old Mac directly with a FireWire or Ethernet cable, to get started. Migration Assistant walks you through the necessary steps, but if you need help, Apple offers more information here.

If you’re coming to the Mac from Windows, welcome! These days, it’s easy to migrate files to the Mac. Unfortunately, Migration Assistant can’t help you, but you can still move files with a direct network connection between your Mac and PC, or via an external USB hard drive. Apple’s directions for these and other transfer methods can be found here. You can also get one of these nifty data transfer cables from companies like Targus.

Odds are good that you’ll be transferring a hefty iTunes library from your old computer. Before you get started, don’t forget to deauthorize the library first by launching iTunes on your old computer, then choosing Store > Deauthorize This Computer from the Menu Bar. Authorize your new library by choosing Authorize This Computer on your new Mac.

2. Update Your Software

Even if your Mac arrived fresh from Santa’s workshop, it probably has software that needs to be updated. Why bother? Updating software squashes bugs, patches security holes, and generally makes using your new Mac a safer and smoother experience. If you’re using a notebook Mac, plug in your power cord to ensure you’ll have enough juice to last the entire upgrade process. Next, select Software Update from the Menu Bar’s Apple Menu. Your Mac will check for new software and, in a new window, let you know what’s available for your system. You may see incremental upgrades to OS X, new printer drivers, updates to Apple applications like Safari, or security updates. If you install a system update, run Software Update again after your Mac restarts. A new version of OS X will likely have its own updates that also need to be applied. Once Software Update reports there’s nothing to report, you’re good to go.

To fine-tune your Software Update settings, click the Software Update pane in System Preferences (Applications > System Preferences). There you can see which updates have been installed, choose how often your Mac looks for updates, and whether or not those updates will be automatically downloaded and applied.

3. Begin Better Battery Habits

It’s not the most exciting thing you can do with a new computer, but if you’ve got a notebook Mac, developing good battery maintenance habits will help you get the most out of your machine for years to come. You can help keep your battery fresh by keeping your Mac away from heat and “exercising” the electrons inside its battery. This means not leaving your Mac plugged in for lengthy periods and frequently running it off battery power, recharging, then returning to battery power again. If you’ll use your laptop infrequently, Apple recommends charging and discharging the battery––a process called calibration––at least once a month. For more typical users, Apple recommends calibrating your Mac’s battery when you first start using it and every few months afterward to help ensure that OS X displays an accurate estimate of your remaining charge. You can learn the steps for calibrating your Mac’s battery here.

4. Start a Time Machine Backup Regimen

Macs are generally trouble-free, but like any computer, they’re full of complex components that can fail at the worst possible time. One of the most important of these is the drive that holds your photos, music, and other precious data. Fortunately, OS X includes an easy-to-use backup solution called Time Machine that can save your bacon if your drive pulls a Grinch on you. All you need to do is buy an external USB drive to which you can back up your files. Our recent look at drives can get you started, but shop around and remember that bigger is better. In general, you’ll want a drive that’s at least twice as large as the one in your Mac. To see your built-in drive’s capacity, select it in the Finder, then choose File>Get Info.

Once you have an external drive, connect it to your Mac. Time Machine will detect your drive and ask if you want to use it as a backup disk. Time Machine will then back up everything on your computer and check every hour for changes, or you can force Time Machine to perform a new backup by selecting Back Up Now from Time Machine’s Menu Bar icon. Click here for more information about Time Machine and how to retrieve your backed up files.

5. Consider AppleCare

Nobody makes better computers than Apple, but they’re increasingly complex devices with fewer and fewer user-serviceable parts. That means expensive repairs if something goes sour with your Mac’s display, Apple-installed RAM, built-in ports, or the accessories that came with your computer. Fortunately, Macs come with 90 days of free technical support and a one-year warranty, but an AppleCare plan extends both to three years. Plans aren’t exactly cheap (they cost $170 to $350 depending on which Mac you own), but you can find lower prices from online vendors like Amazon, and a single repair can make the initial investment worthwhile.

Still, AppleCare is something of a gamble--your Mac may work perfectly for the entire time you own it. But if you decide to sell your perfect Mac down the road, any remaining AppleCare coverage is transferable to the new owner, and this can fetch you a better price on the second-hand market. If you’re still on the fence, Apple has more information here that can help you make a decision. But don’t feel rushed; your new Mac is eligible for an AppleCare plan until the end of its original one-year warranty.

6. Get an iLife

Whether you want to rock out on guitar, capture the stillness of nature in pictures, direct YouTube’s next great kitten video, or easily share your creations online or on a disc, iLife ’11 is your ticket to creativity on the Mac. You’ll find the five iLife apps––iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, iWeb, and iDVD––in your Applications folder, and once you start experimenting with them, you’re bound to discover a brand new hobby you never knew you had. No matter which application strikes your fancy, you’ll find a wealth of features that make it easy to express yourself, or just have fun. We’ve posted tips and tricks for the latest versions of Garageband, iMovie, and iPhoto to help get you started, but check out Apple’s iLife pages for tutorial videos and other documentation. Or you can just dive right in. Managing your Christmas pictures in iPhoto is a great way to learn what iLife can do for you.

7. Get Your Game On

Forget what you’ve heard about games on the Mac. Whether you’re a casual gamer looking to idle away the hours or you’re a die-hard gamer ready to frag friends and strangers in the latest shooter, your new Mac can deliver the goods. Your first stop should be Steam, the premiere online game store (picture the iTunes Store, but for games) that landed on the Mac this year to deliver classics like Portal, Left 4 Dead 2, and Half-Life 2. Just sign up for a free account, download the Steam application, and start browsing. If you’re coming to the Mac from a PC, you may already be a Steam customer, and can re-download your favorite games and play them with the Steam account and friends list you already use. Look for the SteamPlay icon next to a game to make sure you can play it on both platforms, and check out more information here.

But Mac gaming doesn’t end with Steam. MacGameStore, GameAgent, and GameTree Mac offer extensive libraries of downloadable delights for your Mac, as does the browser-based gaming service OnLive. After the holidays wind down, don’t forget to check out MacLife.com each week for Frag the Editors Fridays, your chance to test your wits and trigger finger against the Mac|Life staff.

8. Sync Your Data

In an age when almost everyone has multiple computers at home and the office, syncing data like contacts, calendars, and more isn’t just nice––it’s a must. For Mac users, two of the best options going are MobileMe and Google’s sync services.

MobileMe is the easiest way keep mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks synced across your Macs and iOS devices. It also can share files, iPhoto slideshows, iMovie masterpieces, and iWeb sites from your 20GB iDisk, a cloud-based drive accessible from almost any computer with web access. While you’re online, Me.com lets you log in to check your MobileMe webmail, calendar, contacts, and more in a slick, Mac-like interface that leaves free services in the dust. Yeah, MobileMe costs $99 for a year of service for one user, or $150 a year for up to 5 users, but shop around. Like AppleCare, MobileMe can be had from vendors like Amazon for less than Apple’s prices.

If MobileMe’s features sound good, but “free” sounds better, Google’s sync tools are just the thing. The steps involved are a bit more complicated than those for MobileMe, but hey--free is free. To learn how to sync your Gmail, calendars, and contacts, click here. To sync your data with an iOS device, follow these steps.

9. Take Control of Flash and Dashboard

Apple and Adobe have been engaged in a very public spat about Flash on the Mac and iOS for some time, and the latest development is that Apple no longer ships Macs with the Flash plugin for the Safari browser installed. That means that if you want to enjoy Flash videos, games, and--ahem--ads online, you’ll have to visit Adobe’s site and install the darned plugin yourself. But before you do, check out our guide to learn how to take control of (and live without) Flash on your Mac. You may just end up with better battery life or more free RAM, the memory that lets your Mac juggle all running applications.

Speaking of RAM, push the F4 function key on your Mac’s keyboard and you’ll enter the wonderful world of Dashboard, a collection of floating widgets--some useful, some not so much. If you like what you find, great, but if floating calculators and tile puzzles aren’t your thing, you can disable Dashboard to eke a little more spare RAM from your machine.

To disable Dashboard, you’ll have to delve into OS X’s command line interface in Terminal (Applications>Utilities). Launch Terminal, then type the following and hit Return.defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

To turn it back on, type this:defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

To commit either change, type:killall Dock

10. Customize Safari Surfin'

A browser is your Mac’s window to the web, and Apple’s Safari is one of the best windows around. It’s only getting better, too, thanks to Safari extensions, plugins that add to and improve Safari’s already formidable features. Whether you live in your Twitter feed, eBay auctions, or just want to keep an eye on the weather, there’s an extension for you. Best of all, extensions are “sandboxed” to prevent them from meddling with Safari’s stability or each other, so you can install and delete them without worry.

To commence customization, launch Safari from the Dock and select Safari > Safari Extensions Gallery or just click here. Browse until you find one that strikes your fancy, then click the blue Install Now button to add it to Safari. There are plenty of options to choose from, so you might want to hit our roundup of the 25 best extensions to narrow the field.

Once your extensions are installed, you can manage them by selecting Safari > Preferences, then clicking the Extensions button at the top of the screen. There you can configure an extension’s options, apply updates, and deactivate or delete extensions you don’t like.